The invention relates to an improved process for removing tertiary butyl or tertiary amyl groups from the pendant tertiary butyl or tertiary amyl ether groups of oxyalkylene homopolymers and copolymers.
Vanlerberghe, in British Pat. No. 1,267,259 (1972), describes the preparation of polyhydroxylated polymers having polyoxyalkylene backbones by removing tertiary butyl groups from polytertiary butoxylated polyoxyalkylene backbones. He teaches that this dealkylation is best accomplished by contacting the starting material with a catalytic amount of a sulfonic acid and about 10 to about 200 percent water, based on the weight of the polymeric starting material.
Kwantes et al., in British Pat. No. 1,165,479 (1969), describe the decomposition of an aliphatic tertiary ether into a tertiary monoolefin and an alcohol by contacting the ether with a high surface aluminum catalyst, preferably containing sulfate groups in the presence of steam where the steam to ether molar ratio is 1:1 or higher.
Watanabe et. al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,637,889 (1972), describe the decomposition of a tertiary butyl alkyl ether into isobutylene and an alkanol by contacting the ether with a metal sulfate catalyst. However, they teach that contacting a primary alcohol with a tertiary olefin in the presence of acid catalysts, such as organic sulfonic acid catalysts, results in the formation of a tertiary ether.